GOP Rep Made Series Of Misogynistic Comments On Radio Show

Rep. Jason Lewis (R-MN) had a history of making misogynistic comments on his former radio show, America’s Mr. Right, CNN reported Wednesday.

Lewis hosted the show from 2009 to 2014. CNN’s KFILE team said Former Minnesota GOP deputy chair Michael Brodkorb, who is now a columnist at a local Minnesota news site, tipped off the network to several months-worth of comments by Lewis. Brodkorb covered some of Lewis’ comments in a February 2016 column, CNN noted. The Atlantic also covered some of Lewis’ comments a few months later.

CNN’s review of Lewis’ comments was damning. A spokesperson for Lewis’ campaign told CNN: “This has all been litigated before, and as Congressman Lewis has said time and time again, it was his job to be provocative while on the radio.”

“Well, the thing is, can we call anybody a slut?” Lewis opined in March 2012 after Rush Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke just that. “This is what begs the question. Take this woman out of it, take Rush out of it for a moment,” Lewis said in a March 2012 episode. “Does a woman now have the right to behave — and I know there’s a double standard between the way men chase women and running and running around — you know, I’m not going to get there, but you know what I’m talking about. But it used to be that women were held to a little bit of a higher standard. We required modesty from women. Now, are we beyond those days where a woman can behave as a slut, but you can’t call her a slut?”

“One of the reasons that the Democrats love the quote unquote female issue is because they know women vote more liberally than men do,” Lewis said in August 2012. “Now you could say in a very, very sexist, misogynistic way that, ‘well, that’s because women just don’t understand money. They don’t understand, they’re, they don’t handle finances. They’re guided by emotion, not reason. Why, that’s why they didn’t have the vote for a full century in the country.’ Well, it is true that women cast more votes for Democrats. All I’m saying, I’m not validating the stereotype. I’m married to a woman, for heaven’s sakes, but I will say this: Do not, do not pander and move left to get the female vote.”

He returned to birth control in November 2012, asking rhetorically of women who support public financing of contraception: “You can be bought off for that?”